Following the increasingly loud thrumming sound, Peter and Kate came under a spot where they could practically feel a consistent rumble in the ground around them. There was a manhole just above them, so Peter crept up the wall to its underside, gently lifting the cover up when his spider-sense gave no warning of immediate danger. The two mobile machines were lurking nearby, slowly patrolling the area surrounding the machine keeping the dome active.
"What do you see?" Kate asked in a hushed voice from below.
"Their patrolling the area," Peter clarified. "They're not facing our way right now, but they're still a bit too close."
Peter dropped to the floor beside the underground stream, landing so gently that he made almost no noise at all, a skill he'd perfected over the last couple of years.
"We need to distract them somehow," he added. "If I can get out there and get a web out far enough for them to see, it should work." It was a tricky scenario, and he'd have to get creative to produce a legitimate distraction with just his webs, but it seemed like the best option to him, if nothing else to keep his partner out of the line of fire until absolutely necessary.
"No, I think we need something bigger," Kate countered, "something that will cause at least the slightest bit of chaos. No offense, your webs are useful, but not enough of a distraction here."
"Okay," Peter said, his pride a little wounded, "well, do you have something else in mind?"
Kate reached back to her quiver, pulling out an arrow with what appeared to be an explosive round attached to it.
"You think this would work?" Kate asked, though the way she said it came off more like she already knew the answer.
"You're just full of surprises," Peter replied. "Where did you even get that?"
"I have connections," Kate said. "My family is rich after all, remember?"
"Okay, okay," Peter said, "no need to rub it in. Anyway, let me check for the best thing to fire at so you can get the right angle."
With that, Peter scurried back up the wall, once again lifting the manhole cover. He peeked out, finally deciding on a building that looked like it would not be too hard to hit but would still draw the patrolling machines far enough away. He hated to sacrifice a chunk of a building like this, but he and Sam had made sure everyone in this area got evacuated, so some property damage didn't seem so bad in comparison.
"Move over to the right a little, back toward the wall," Peter said, motioning for further clarification. Kate eagerly moved into position, with Peter motioning again for her to scoot back just a little further.
"How far or high am I trying to get?" Kate asked.
"You're going to want to aim for about a 75-degree angle," Peter explained. "That should allow it to carry enough to hit its target."
Peter then scurried out of the way of the hole as Kate loaded her arrow onto her bow and took aim. Once she seemed steady, the girl released without hesitation, and Peter scurried back up to check where it was headed. Sure enough, the arrow briefly arced high before descending, detonating right up against the building he'd intended. The two fighting machines immediately turned their attention in the direction of the explosion, moving more rapidly than before as they went in its direction.
"It worked!" Peter said as he dropped down in front of Kate again. "Okay, hold on; I think I have an idea of how we can get inside."
Climbing out of the manhole, Peter leapt up, firing a web and yanking himself to the underside of the large machine projecting the dome. As he came to it, he delivered as hard a blow with his fist as he could and, sure enough, he punched a hole clean through it, as he thought he'd be able to. Checking quickly to make sure the other two machines were still distracted, Peter expanded the hole that he had made, tearing it further and creating a large enough space for he and Kate to enter.
He glanced down, where he could see her expectantly looking his way. He motioned for her to come on up, so she stuck one of her grappling arrows to it, the line pulling her up. Once she was up with him, Peter helped her get in first, climbing in behind her.
"Did you know you'd be able to just punch through it like that?" Kate asked once they were both on the inside.
"I had a pretty good idea," Peter replied. "The underside of this thing was likely going to be the easiest to do it at least, since it was the side that this thing landed on. Because of that, I theorized it was likely to be at least a little softer from the roughness of the impact, so I took a shot at it."
"Alright, so now what do we..."
Kate stopped as she turned and started looking around, and Peter could easily understand why. The spot they were in was something akin to a large walkway, but even that just looked so intricate in a very otherworldly way. Naturally, this made sense, but still, it was a sight to behold. Even in this smaller space, absolutely nothing about it looked like it could've been made on earth, even in Wakanda.
"So, what do we do now?" Kate finally finished after a moment.
That was a good question, as Peter hadn't even been sure they would get this far.
"Best guess is we try to find the core of this thing," he replied. "That should be our best chance to shut this thing down."
Peter could hear Kate take a little breath.
"Okay," she said. "Here goes nothing I guess."
Amadeus couldn't believe the size of the dome once he and Riri finally came on it. He'd been able to see even from far away that it was big but seeing it up close was totally different. Just like in New York, the thing encompassed a large area, maybe even larger than the other one he'd seen, and he could see two other machines moving around, like they were patrolling the area.
"Okay, so, what, do we just try and smash our way in?" he asked his partner, who was standing beside him.
"I've been trying to analyze the forcefield for any weak spots, but there don't seem to be any," Riri replied.
"Well, I guess we'll just have to make one," Amadeus said. Having already hulked out, he drew back his large right fist, taking as hard a swing as he could. As soon as he landed his blow, he was immediately blasted several feet back, hitting the ground hard.
"You alright?" Riri said, as she blasted over to him, helping him up.
"I think so," Amadeus replied as he got to his feet, staring back at the dome. "I feel pretty dumb though."
"It's okay; I already knew I was the smarter one," Riri teased playfully. Even in world ending situations, his best friend was still able to find opportunities to mess with him.
"Whatever," he replied, turning back to the dome. "Okay, so now we know that this thing has the capacity to dish back out any kinetic energy its hit with, so pounding through it isn't an option, and I'm guessing not even anything in your suit's arsenal would have any more success."
"Probably not," Riri replied, "and obviously there is no way to go around it or come in from above, so what's another opt..."
The two then looked at each other.
"Below!" they both exclaimed, pointing to each other.
Looking around for a moment, Amadeus quickly found a manhole cover. Ripping it off, Riri jumped inside first, igniting her suit's hovering capabilities before she made it to the floor. Amadeus quickly realized there was one problem though: he was too big to fit through the hole, something Riri seemed to pick up on too from the way she looked up at him.
"Hold on," he said before lifting his foot up and taking a big stomp, breaking some of the ground around the hole, finally enabling him to jump in. Unfortunately, when he did, he landed right in the middle of the nasty gunk that flowed through the underside of the city.
"Well, that's disgusting," Amadeus said.
"It'll be a story to tell once we help save the planet though," Riri said.
"True," Amadeus concurred, and they marched on. Okay, he marched while Riri hovered, but it was basically the same thing. They continued, with Riri setting her armor's systems to scan for large objects just above the earth's surface. Finally, they came to where they were just underneath the large machine.
"Alright," Riri said, "so, one of us is going to need to try and distract the bots patrolling the area while the other gets inside. I should probably be the distraction, since I'm more mobile and less likely to get hit. Plus, the armor should protect me if I do."
"Okay, sounds good to me I guess," Amadeus replied. Riri didn't say or do anything in response, but he swore he could hear her breathing start to pick up just a little suddenly. Her helmet was still on, but he could still tell that she wasn't looking at anything in particular either.
"Hey, you okay?" he asked.
Riri rescinded her helmet, revealing her worried expression.
"Yeah, it's just...now that the moment is finally here, I'm more nervous than I thought I would be," she explained. "I mean, what if something goes wrong? What if one of us gets hurt, or worse? Plus, if we fail, it's the end of the world!"
"Hey," Amadeus said, putting one of his large hands gently against the right arm of her suit. "It's okay to be nervous; I'm nervous too. I know we're not seasoned heroes like Spider-Man, but even he had to start somewhere, right?"
"Yeah, but I'm not sure he started with Armageddon level stakes," Riri countered. "It's just, I've dreamed of being a superhero for as long as I can remember, but what if I'm just some kid who happens to be a little smarter than normal who stumbled upon someone else's suit once and got some crazy delusions of grandeur?"
"Well, then I guess you're the smart and delusional kid I'm following into battle," Amadeus replied, prompting a small, wry smile from his best friend. "Seriously Ri, you've got this. Let's just take this one step at a time, okay?"
Riri let out one more breath.
"Okay." She then brought her helmet back up, turning to face the manhole exit, repeating "I got this," to herself before blasting out of the manhole, sending the cover flying and leaving Amadeus to himself for a moment. Now, it was his turn to collect himself as some nerves of his own were setting in. He'd been telling the truth before; he really WAS as nervous as Riri was, but he'd always been the one between the two of them who'd been a little better at masking emotions they didn't want others to see.
"Like she said, you got this," he muttered to himself. He then bent his knees, tensing them up before extending his legs in a big spring, sending him bursting out of the ground and once again breaking the ground around the manhole. Once at the surface, he could see Riri flying around the two patrolling machines, their attention squarely focused on her as a result. She was getting in some shots of her own though, so it seemed so far so good on her end.
Looking at the underbelly of the machine that was powering the dome, Amadeus moved until he was lined up with the center before taking another super powered leap and, leading with his fist, smashed clean through to the inside.
"Ri, can you hear me?" he said, deciding to try out the communication device in his ear. "Ri, I'm inside."
"Awesome!" came a shout in between some blasting noises. "A little busy right now, so I'll be there as soon as I can! Try not to have all the fun without me, alright!?"
Amadeus chuckled.
"I'll do my best, but no promises."
Yep, Eli was definitely in over his head. He and Sam had just arrived in Berlin, finally, and were now approaching the dome. Looking at the scale of the thing, he wasn't sure how they were going to pull it off. Sam could likely at least hold his own, not just because of his inside knowledge of their enemy, because he could fly, utilize some kind of crazy energy and who knew what else. He, on the other hand, was simply a bit stronger and more agile than a normal person. Okay, quite a bit of both really, but still, Eli couldn't help but feel like it paled in comparison to the others he had just joined with.
As they got closer, two war machines could be seen patrolling the area inside the dome. It wasn't too unlike the few stories Eli had managed to get out of his grandfather about his time in the military. There were always multiple people on watch, making sure that the area was safe while others did their work, which was essentially what appeared to be happening here. If they were going to disable the machine, they were either going to have to sneak around the machines or one of them would have to cause a distraction while the other got in.
They finally landed just outside the dome, out of view of the current positions of the patrolling machines.
"Alright, so, any thoughts on how to get in?" Eli asked his companion, who was trying to shake his likely sleepy arms (which had held onto him the whole way with) awake again. Once he was done, Sam still didn't respond to the question, simply walking up closer to the dome. Eli couldn't imagine all the thoughts and feelings that must be going through his mission partner's mind right now. Even more than that, he couldn't imagine all the grief and trauma the guy had to be suppressing right now for the sake of the mission. Losing his father and, essentially, his whole world the way he did, and now knowing that they were leaning on his knowledge of the situation to stop another world from being destroyed?
Eli couldn't help but feel that, if he were in Sam's shoes...well, he didn't know how he would handle it, but it definitely wouldn't be this well, if that's what one could call it.
Suddenly, the blue energy encapsulated Sam again, and he raised his hand up to the forcefield energy of the dome. When he pressed his hand against it, a small area seemed to dissipate. Sam then turned back to Eli.
"Since this forcefield is powered by the same energy in my helmet, I should be able to create enough of a temporary opening for us to get in," he said. "From there, we will have to move quickly."
"What's the plan then?" Eli asked. "How will we get inside that thing powering the dome? I don't have anything to cut through it, and I'm not strong enough to tear through it."
"I'll have to blast us in," Sam said. "The problem is, it will probably sense me as soon as we enter, so we'll have to deal with those things first. I'll try and keep most of their attention though, so hopefully that should allow you the opportunity to strike."
"Okay, got it...I guess," Eli responded. He wasn't exactly sold on the plan, but he didn't have a counterproposal either, so for now, they'd have to run with that idea. He came up closer behind Sam, who pressed both hands up against the dome, and slowly, the blue energy dissipated in front of them, creating a way in for the two. Eli followed Sam inside just in time for the energy field to reconstitute, sealing them back inside.
No turning back now.
Sure enough, just as Sam had predicted, the two machines patrolling the area turned to notice him, likely having been alerted to the helmet's energy signature. As the two turned around and began making their way towards them, Sam blasted off, drawing their fire while trying to return some of his own.
"Okay, time to move," Eli said quietly to himself. He had no idea how he was supposed to help against such a huge threat, but he knew that he had to do something. It was the opportunity he had been waiting for: a chance to prove himself. More than that though, he wanted to show his grandfather that he could carry on the heroism that the man had once believed himself to stand for. This was Eli's chance to make that a reality, to finally stand for something larger than just himself.
Breaking out into a sprint, Eli headed full speed ahead towards the challenge in front of him.
Hope you're still enjoying this!
Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!
"For your ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all your paths." Proverbs 5:21